Working out at home

So I had missed a couple of days and knew I had some making up to do - but I didn't have a gym available. I had spent the last couple of days working on my hand stand push-up, including moving from head to floor to a raised 5" or so platform.

Today, I decided I needed a metcon workout - so I put together what bodyweight exercises I could and came up with the following:

50 HSPU (head to floor)
100 push-ups
150 air squats

I then cleared out a spot on the wall and started my HSPUs. These are tough - especially after 25 or so. Toward the end, I was doing these in increments of 3, 2 or even 1 - but my ability to get on the wall as well as push them out has greatly improved.

I finished the set of 50 in 11:09 and then moved into the push-ups. As I had hoped, the HSPUs were harmful enough to those general muscles that it made the push-ups more difficult than normal - knocking out only 40 in the first set and 20 in subsequent sets. I finished these at 15:40 - 4:31 total for the push-ups. I then moved into the air squats, which were harder than I expected, since I hadn't done much leg or abs, etc. to have an adverse affect - but I was very fatigued and winded from the HSPUs and PUs - so I finished these in 5:10 at 20:50.

This was more work than I had originally expected, which I am glad about!

Not feeling it

I'm not sure why, but I just wasn't feeling it today. I went down to do the WOD from yesterday:
Complete three rounds for time of:
Run 800m
155 pound Power cleans, 21 reps

However, when I got down there, there were 2 people on the treadmill and the third was out of service.
Instead of my 800m warm-up jog, I decided to do the row - which I sometimes end up going overboard on. This was just the case today:

1000m row - 3:43.4 - way too fast for a warm-up, which I should probably slow down to as much as 4 minutes or more. After this I did:
5 very wide grip dead-hang full range of motion pull-ups, coming to a complete 2-5 seconds stop at the bottom
20 sit-ups
20 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips
3x 135# power cleans to get the feel of the exercise of the day.

I had planned on doing something else - perhaps some heavy lifts today, but by the time I got to my dips, one of the treadmills was clearing out - so I had a spot to do my 800m run - so I decided to proceed with the WOD.

So I set up 155# on the bar and jumped on the treadmill and started my watch. I could feel at the beginning of the workout that I was less than 100%. It could have been the row being too much, or the fact that it was 3:45 and I had only had a small bowl of cereal, an english muffin, an activia yogurt, a banana and a protein shake for nutrients so far today causing low blood sugar - but either way, I just wasn't feeling it.

I kicked the treadmill up to 10.1 MPH for a just-under-3-minute 800 - of course, with the treadmill getting up to speed, it ended up taking me 3:04. Perhaps this was my second mistake (or third, if you count barely eating any calories) - as when I finished, I had to take a short break before starting the power cleans - and when I did, I only knocked out 5 before stopping. It didn't get any better from there either. Going on 10 minutes after finishing my 800 - and perhaps another 5-6 sets of power cleans, I was finally finishing set 1 at 13:10. I knew I had done something wrong, as other people on the forums had posted between 15 and 30 minutes - at this pace I was looking at not possibly finishing before 40.

I decided to stop - not completely, I ended up racking the bar and doing another 21 reps of bench press at 155# (this only took me 2 sets - 1 of 15 and 1 of 6).

This isn't the only time recently I just "haven't felt it" and had a hard time getting through the workouts. I'm wonder if it really is because of my eating schedule, or if I'm hitting a proverbial wall. Perhaps a change in diet?

Granted, my regular schedule was knocked out of whack - going to bed at the same time as usual (perhaps even a little later), I was up at least an hour earlier than usual - eating a full 1-1.5 hours earlier than usual (at 6:30 AM I had my small cereal) - started the day with a large coffee instead of a large glass of water, had little to drink throughout the day and also little food. I'm also coming off the holiday binge which isn't good - so who knows, perhaps I'll bounce back. Either way, I'll make note of what I am eating/drinking and what kind of sleep I'm getting as I post my near future workouts.

Another brutal workout

So today I did a workout from 11/21 on the main site:

For time:
21 Hand Stand Push-ups (HSPU)
400m run
21 weighted pull-ups - 20# (WPU)
15 HSPU
400m run
15 WPU
9 HSPU
400m run
9 WPU

I warmed up with a nice easy 800m run - 4:52 and did some other easy exercises:
5 pull-ups
15 sit-ups
15 push-ups
15 squats
10 dips

I then moved into the workout. I've only just started doing HSPU - having cleared out a wall in my bedroom to kick my feet onto - I did about 200 over the course of the weekend, so I felt pretty prepped for this, despite that my lats and triceps were still a little bit sore.

So I found a spot in the gym to kick up on the wall (note to self - next time I can do it on the nautilus machine in the middle of the room - less chance of kicking my feet through the wall, and there is nothing above it to obstruct me).

So I started off with 10 HSPUs, rested and then kicked up and did 6 more, another rest and 5 to finish out. I'm inconsistent still getting up on the wall, which I need to workout - at least twice in the first round I had trouble getting all the way vertical kicking up and had to try again - wasting precious energy.

I then jumped on the treadmill and cranked it up to 12MPH for the run - finishing the 400m in 1:22.
I then grabbed my 20# weight with my feet and proceeded into the weighted pull-ups, knocking out 10-6-5-5. I managed to figure out how to kip with the weight, which made things easier. I finished the first round at 6:37. This looked pretty promising, since the remaining rounds should be shorter. I was aiming for 15-20 minutes total.

However, then I got into the second set of HSPUs. These were brutal. I knocked out 8 - then had a bit of trouble getting up onto the wall, I eventually got 1 more out free standing, without ever hitting the wall, but hitting vertical before falling back over, I managed to squeeze one in. I then tried, fruitlessly to kick up at least 6-7 times before finally catching a break. This was brutal, as it killed my arms, legs, and abs - and kept me in a position (arms shoulder width apart in front of me, one knee to my chest and one leg out behind me) that kept me from adequately catching my breath - while simultaneously straining a large collection of muscles.

Once I did get up, I only got 3 more in - but had less trouble getting up the next 2 times to knock out 2 and then 1 last HSPU.

I moved to the treadmill and knew I had to go slower as I was breathing a lot harder than the first round. I ran at 10 MPH and finished in 1:35 - barely finishing that.

I moved back into the pull-ups knocking out 5 at a time for the first 2 rounds, then 4 and 1 - finishing at 17:50. Wow.

I dreaded getting back into the HSPU position and knew I had to do something smart to make it through. It took me again, 2-3 attempts to get on the wall. I tested my stamina at 5 reps, and kept going - knowing my best chance was to knock out all 9 - which I somehow managed to do.

I jumped on the treadmill at 11MPH - but kicked it up to 11.5 and half way through. I finished this in 1:31. It took me 3 more rounds of pull-ups to finish out at 22:41.

This workout was killer. Loved every second of it - and I am sore all over from it. The sprints certainly didn't help the leg pain from the burpees/squats the day before. I guess I'll need to work on getting into position on the HSPU!

Go hard or go home!

Kettle bell day

I only made it to the gym due to some needed coaxing from a co-worked that usually goes down at the same time - originally planning to run, I just didn't have a lot in me. So I decided to do some kettle bell work - which I had brought in to my work gym from home.

Warm-up
1000m row - 3:29.6
5 pull-ups
20 sit-ups
20 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips

What I did have in me, the 1000m row took out - for the most part - I was pretty exhausted after (not a great idea for a warm-up, I know - but I wanted to push that one!)

I then completed the following with my 30# Kettle Bell

KB Swing:
2 handed x35
1 handed x20 right arm
1 handed x20 left arm
Clean and Press:
10 L arm
10 R arm
Swing:
Alternating catch and release x30
Windmills:
10 R
10 L
Overhead Carry:
R arm - 86 steps (4x the length of the gym)
L arm - 86 steps

It was a good workout - for my lower back anyway. Still sore from the Angie/Fran back to back on the 20th/21st - the muscles on either side of my elbow - forearm and bicep included. Now that I think about it, doing Angie the day before Fran probably didn't help my time either!

Meeting with Fran

Fran had come up in the WOD on the main site - and I was looking to improve my time. So I decided to take a whack.

The circumstances were not ideal, the gym that I was in (military gym) only had a nautilus assistance pull-up station for pull-ups. This didn't work out well - I held the assistance seat down with a dumbbell - but the positioning of all the bars and etc. only left room for a dead-hang pull - which meant no kipping.

I warmed up with:
1 mile run (9:44)
5 pull-ups
30 sit-ups
10 135# bench press
30 2x3# DB squats
10 dips

I then waited for my heart rate to come back down a bit and started in on Fran:
Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups

I ended up finishing in 7:48 - slower than last time.

I'm upset - hate to make excuses, but I think it was caused by the inadequate pull-up station.

Afterwards I decided to work on my sit-ups:
10 20# decline sit-ups @ 45 degrees
10 decline sit-ups @ 45 degrees
AMRAP sit-ups in 2 minutes - 71

The 71 is good - my feet were anchored, so there was a better hold than if a person was holding my feet as in the APFT - but I still didn't make 100% reps - granted I was 1 Fran and a bunch of decline sit-ups in.

All-in-all, good workout.

Revenge on Angie

So I got another go at Angie - a few days behind the main site WOD, due to the crick in my neck - but I wanted to take another whack at Angie, so I made the workout up.

I last attempted Angie on September 26th. On that day it took me 27:36 to complete:
100 pull-ups
100 push-ups
100 sit-ups
100 squats
In that order, completing each set of 100 before moving to the next exercise - taking as many sets as needed to complete the 100.

Today I used a little strategy and didn't go near failure before finishing the set. This way, I didn't go from 25 reps on the first set of pull-ups to 15 sets of 5 to finish.

So I warmed up as follows, mostly avoiding the exercises I would be performing:
1/2 mile Run: 4:28
5 pull-ups
15 30# KB Swings
10 Dips
5/side 30# KB WindMill

Here are the results, with the total count of completed reps at the end of each set:

Pull-ups - 10,20,30,40,50,60,70,79,80,87,90,95,100 - 07:10
Push-ups - 25, 50, 65, 80, 90, 100 - 11:40
Sit-Ups - 15,25,35,45,55,65,75,85,90,95,100 - 19:50
Squats - 40,60,80,100 - 22:50

I improved my time by 4:46 in a little over a month and a half - but produced a very large and ripped blister on my left hand during the pull-ups.

Bench Press Max and Tabata Treadmill

So I've done 3 months of CrossFit - perhaps a month of which was self Rx'd, doing maybe 3 days with the Bench Press - but on those 3 days never going over body weight (185).

They say that the only way to train for doing heavy lifts is to do heavy lifts. Today - or yesterday, rather - I decided to put that theory to the test. Before this 3 month stint, I had a 1 rep max of 260 - but this was doing bench press 1-2 times a week - and usually going at least as heavy as 225 for a couple reps. So now, doing no more than 185 - and otherwise doing nothing more than push-ups so far as that particular pushing motion goes for 3 months - how would I fare?

I warmed up with:

1/2 mile run @ 1% incline: 4:41
10 Pull-ups30 sit-ups
20 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips

And then some stretching. I then moved into the bench press - starting low to do some more warm-up.

135# - 8 reps
185# - 4 reps

Right here, I can say that it felt like a not-so-good day. As I said, my neck is still bothering me - and though I have done 21 (or was it 13?) reps of my bodyweight in the past (recently), these 4 felt kind of difficult. To be honest, I was a little worried - but really, even if I didn't go very heavy today, I would know that it was because I was feeling "off" and that I could try again in a week or so for a better test.

That said, I moved on to my 1 rep weights, starting with 225. 225 felt pretty good, so I made another appreciable jump to 245. Again, no problems - it went up a little slow, but easy enough that I knew I could do more. I again cut my weight jump in half and went to 255 - with no spotter, using a free weight. This went up, but very slowly. I probably could have gotten that extra 5 pounds for 260 - which again is my best EVER and I think I've only ever done it once. So I would say that without a doubt, I have lost no strength in the bench press as a result of taking 3 months of to switch to CrossFit - with no specific training.

However, I would say that I feel confident that I could modify my training, still keeping true to crossfit - and make much more rapid gains than before to break 300 in the near future.

Will that be my next 300 quest? CrossFit my way to a 300# bench? We'll see.

So after my bench press I moved into a tabata treadmill run - 12% incline at 30 seconds below my 5K pace (which should be about 21 minutes - a 7 minute mile) putting my pace at 7:30/mile - or 8MPH.

In the past I have been overzealous on the tabata treadmill run - and also failed at the 7:30 pace for the tabata's older brother - 30 seconds work followed by 20 seconds rest, instead of 20 seconds work with 10 seconds rest.

So I was determined to make my pace all the way through.

I hit the quick start button and cranked the incline to 12% and then started speeding the track up until I hit my pace. I waited for the 1 minute mark and jumped on. After 2 repetitions, I was still feeling pretty good - until the end of the rest period, when I realised how quickly I had to jump back on. But I did anyway, telling myself I was 1/4 of the way done.

After 4, my lungs were already burning. It's amazing how quickly this routine hits you. During my 6th repetition, my legs were telling me to stop - but I didn't listen. I worried my legs might give out during the 7th rep - but I made it through. During my 10 seconds rest, I told myself I only have to hold on for 20 more seconds.

And that's what I did. 8 rounds at a 7:30 pace! That's smoking. I hit my goal - and I'll be happy to move forward - though I'll still use the same speed for at least the next few sessions.

Clean and Push Press

I actually did this one a week ago now, but hadn't posted it. In fact, I have a few make-up days to get on here.

This was done on 11/12 - the main site WOD was 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 clean and jerk. I haven't done the jerk before, and didn't feel comfortable with steel plates/no bumper plate and unsupervised - so I swapped for Clean and Push Press. I stopped doing push press after failure, but continued doing cleans up to 7 sets of 1 rep.

I warmed up with:
1000m row - 3:39
10 overhead squats - 45#
10 pull-ups
115# clean and press x 5

I then moved into the exercise. My previous PR on clean was 175 and 165 on the push press.

I started out nice and light - 135.

I took, including swapping the weights around 2 minutes rest between attempts. I did 155 next pretty easily and moved to 185. This went up, but it was a good struggle - PR by 10# and 20# for clean and push press respectively.

I then moved to 195 - clean was no problem - but when I got to the push press, I didn't quite make a full lockout before I felt a severe discomfort, somewhere between a pop and a pinch in my left shoulder. A week later, this is still causing my neck to be stiff - not exactly sure what happened, but it didn't feel good.

So after that, I opted to just do cleans (yeah, yeah - I maybe should have stopped). I pulled off 205 fairly easily, so I thought - getting nice and low with the full squat. Afterwards, I got a little over-zealous and attempted 220. This didn't make it to the rack position after 2 attempts. The first attempt barely got beyond a dead lift position before I brought it back down - it didn't feel like it was going up, so I stopped and went back down.

I probably should have given my self some rest, but instead, just adjusted my footing and grip and went back in for another go. This time I almost got it all the way through, but just couldn't get under it.

I dropped the weight to 210 and tried again - again maybe a little too quick - and I failed again.

So my PR for clean stands at 205 and my push press at 185. Good improvement!

300 Results

Here is my result post for the 300 challenge:

After 3 months of training, at the beginning of which I failed to complete the 300 challenge - flunking out after 24 minutes or so, only half way through the floor wipers. Also, I'll mention that when I first attempted this routine, I used a standard bench for your bench press - thinking this was about 24". However, when I built my 24" jumping box, I realized it was no-where near 24" - perhaps 18-20" at best - so I was doing a lot less jumping than I ended up doing in the finale.

So anyway, here are my results - total reps; exercise; # completed for each set; finish time:

25 Pull-ups - 25 - 00:38
50 Deadlifts (135#) - 30, 20 - 03:20
50 push-ups - 50 - 04:18
50 Box Jumps (24") - 20, 15, 15 - 09:40
50 Floor Wipers (135#) - 20, 15, 15 - 18:00
50 KB Clean and Press (30#) - 50 - 21:35
25 Pull-Ups - 10, 5, 5, 5 - 23:55

So after finishing the floor wipers, which was my longest event (08:20), I took an additional 05:55 to finish the entire challenge. Last time around I quit out less than half-way through the floor wipers. This means that last time around I would have had at LEAST another 6 minutes to add on to my time - bringing my total over half an hour - and I would venture to say I would have added at least another 4-5 minutes on top of that, since that should be about how long the remaining floor wipers took me.

So we are looking at an estimated 10-11 minute improvement - or about a 33% improvement in stamina and strength endurance over a period of only 90 days.

You can also see results just by comparing the number of sets it took to complete each exercise - the original results:

Pull-Ups - 24,25
135# Deadlift - 17,30,40,50
Push-Ups - 50
Box-Jumps - 10,25,40,50
Floor Wipers - 15, 26
Stop.

My 1st pull-up and deadlift sets were cut in half. In fact, if you look at the deaflift, my first two sets got me to 30 reps in my original attempt - which is where I stopped on my first set for the second go.

The box jumps were only a 25% improvement in sets - but then again, the jump was 4-6 inches higher!
The floor wipers, I was only just over half done after 2 sets - dropping from 15 to 11 reps - this time around, I was done after 3 sets - completing no less than 15 reps per set.

I am extremely happy with my results. Granted, I think I will continue to work and perhaps try this again down the road - but getting down to it, this routine was no harder than some of the every day routines I complete with CrossFit.

I'm going to stay the routine. My last APFT was under what I had hoped and expected - especially on the run - so I will work on getting my run and sit-ups up to 100%. Once I have done that, I will do what I need to improve, or at the very least maintain - but I won't focus on them. That means more cardio (or really, anaerobic endurance and running) routines in the near future - probably whenever I don't have all required equipment available to perform the WOD.

My revenge for Cindy

Today I get to do a comparison post! My first Cindy can be found at Day 28 of the 300 Challenge, 8/25/2009.

Today I took my revenge on Cindy after 2 and a half months or so of CrossFit. As expected, I saw an improvement.

First time around, I completed 18 Full Rounds + 5 pull-ups + 8 push-ups in 20 minutes.

This time, I noticed a marked difference in my stamina - I was getting more out of the way more quickly and feeling less tired. I also was having no problem doing all reps for each exercise without any rest.

My results: 20 rounds + 5 pull-ups.

I posted last time that I did Cindy that 1 set per minute was a good goal - and CrossFit has helped me to achieve that goal - so I am happy with that. Next time I expect to do better - perhaps I can eventually reach 25 rounds? I'll probably try Chelsea before then - the same as Cindy, except you never pre-load your sets - do 1 set on the minute, every minute until you can no longer complete the set within the minute - up to 30 minutes. This would allow me to still hit the 20 in 20 that I got today, but keep going and try to keep the same pace for 10 more rounds - which would certainly help with stamina - then I can start working on speed.

Anyway, I found the results for 300 - I'll post those in a few under a new post.

Run Day

I have my results from the 300 challenge - I just have to find them so I can post them. In the mean-time, I'll go ahead and post today's workout.

Self Rx'd today - I did 3 intervals on the treadmill at 12, 11 and 10 MPH respectively holding the pace for as long as possible (distance/time).

Results:
12MPH - .5 mile - 2:32
11MPH - .39 mile - 2:14
10MPH - .36 mile - 2:15

Times of course included acceleration. Total: 1.25 mi in 7:01.

Rest time was just until my heart rate dropped down to the same rate it was after my warm-up (approx. 140).

This was a good workout and IMHO seemed to be just about as daunting and effective as a tabata run.

Before this, I warmed-up with:
1/2 mile run - 4:54
10 pull-ups
30 sit-ups
25 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips

As I got my results from my recent PT test, I am going to be doing a lot of CFE style runs until I can get my 2 mile run time below 13 minutes - preferably 12:30 or so, so that I'm safe on a bad day. I'll also be ensuring that I continue to include high rep sit-ups in my warm-up. I may even start putting a set of sit ups at the beginning and end of my warm-up, e.g.:

25 SU, 10 Pull-Up, 20 squats, 20 push-ups, 25 SU, 10 Dips

This way I end up with more sit-ups total and don't do any sets that are particularly stressful. Other than that, I'm going to basically keep with the CrossFit WODs. In fact, I'll likely make up Friday's:
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
65 pound Power snatch, 12 reps
10 Push-ups

And today's Cindy